That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Sandi Toksvig

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Sandi Toksvig joins Gaby for a joyous chat about ABBA, musicals, QI and much more. She tells us about going to Nando's for the first time - with Bjorn from ABBA - and why she's obsessed with 'strange' books. They also discuss some of the words that Shakespeare brought to the English language, a love of hotdogs and the joy of live theatre (both being on stage, and being in an audience) We hope you enjoy this warm and lovely chat! And if you'd like to find out more about Sandi's live QI show - the details are here! Remember you can watch our podcasts now on our newly launched YouTube channel!And please do leave us a review and say hello! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sandy Toxfig, are you ready? Did you bring your sleeping bag? Because there's so much to talk to you about. I know, but you have to explain, before we do anything else, you have to explain why I'm here, what happened, because it's bizarre. It is bizarre. Well, apart from the fact that we have actually, we sort of worked out, we've known each other for about 100 years, weirdly. Yeah, there is.

But I was standing on a train platform, not on a booked train, coming from Manchester, because I work in Manchester, coming back to London, and I am WhatsApping, Joe, who's in charge of the podcast, right? And I'm literally doing that press, I mean, people can't see it unless they're watching on YouTube, but I'm like that pressing,

and the name is Sandy Toxfig, and then I hear, Hello, darling, and it was Sandy Toxfig in Manchester with a mutual friend, and I just, but I think I became so... You looked pale. I did not understand how I had your name and pressing,

and then you said hello to... It was like one of your pantos that you've written. You appeared. What was even weirder about it was, they had just made an announcement of quite a swift platform change, and I saw you, and I thought, I don't think that woman's heard the platform changed. That woman, right?

I don't think that woman's heard the platform change. just tell her, is she aware that there's been a late platform change? We've all got to hurry, because you were on your phone. I was on my phone messaging about Sandy Toxby. So I went and stood in front of you, thinking you were just a woman, and I went, oh, it's my friend, Gabby. But it was, we've then, you're very kindly,

and then we went up the stairs with you, and Catherine, and then came back down. But the whole time I'm going up the stairs and coming down the stairs and getting onto the... Oh, I can't believe it. What are you doing? What are you doing? But also, there's a friend of mine, we always compare,

coincidences. So I texted, I WhatsApp her on the train. You won't believe it. This just happened. She said, oh, that's pretty cool. Then the couple I was sitting opposite on the train, okay, happened to be, I mean, it's just all a bit weird, but my lovely agent George, her best friend is called Lara, and the couple I was sitting next to, their son works for Lara in a company.

That's quite weird. It was because they said, oh, my son works it. And I said, oh, that's my ageist, best friend's coming. And they said, yes, what? How? And they knew her, and she knew him. And then, and I was saying, well, you're not going to believe it. Because I've just seen Sandy Tox thing.

And I was, and it turned, and then I called my husband and said, you're not going to believe what's happening. He said, oh, every time you speak, can you just calm down? No, and I couldn't. But see, I like stories. I love stories like that. I just think they're so fascinating. There was a Danish tenor called Lord's Melchior.

And he was studying in Berlin. And I think it was 1934. And he was in the garden singing, Come to my arms, my love. And he looked up and a woman parachuted into the garden called Maria Becker. And she was an actress doing a stunt. And they were married for 34 years.

Oh, you see, that is. That might even be better than bumping into Sandy Toxmig on the train station in Manchester. Oh, I love that. But do we love it because we think there's a pattern to life and there's actually some plan and some purpose in life? Or do we love it because it's just a good story? I don't really know. You see, my husband is the doubt. He says he does it because he's more academic and he'll, well, it's because of this, this and this.

And you only talk about it because it happened when they, all the other times when it doesn't happen, obviously you don't talk about it. And then I tell him to, I just say, shut up. I think that's more boring. Yes, I agree. Yeah, yeah. That's it. What is he like, an economist or something? Yeah, we go.

There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we, so there was things in my head, some really strange memories, one of which is that we were at horse racing together. And it was a charity event, and I was doing Saturday morning kids television called Motor Mouth. Oh, my God. And you had just finished doing number 73 with Neil Buchanan. And then Neil Buchanan did Motamouth. And we both love Neil.

Neil's a good egg. Yeah, clever, talented, good egg. And we were at a horse race. And you, and you said, I can tell you love children's. This is really weird thing to remember. I can tell you love children's television. I said, that's all I ever wanted to do. And you said, one day, it's not just going to just be children's for you.

you're going to go on. It's not just children. So I said, oh, thank you very much. And I said, I think you might be the cleverest person I've ever met. And you said, I'm going to tell you who's going to win the race. And you were right. So that, so this is, oh, your hot dog is right. Your hot dog is right.

Has anybody eaten a hot dog before on your podcast? Nobody's eating a hot dog. Oh, Joe. Oh, my God. It's enormous. Are you going hands? Are you going. I mean, I grew up in New York, darling.

There's no way you're going to use a knife and fork. You're not. You're not. Oh no, but maybe you need the knife and foot for the coleslaw. Oh, maybe. I love that, Joe. Thank you, sweetie. You're so welcome.

That's so cool. I do love, love, love a hot dog. Go on, you have to, you can't. Are you going to leave it to a Southwomenia? Can I tell you? I always think when I tell a story, I think it sounds like name dropping, but these are actually people like work. Yes, too.

You know what I mean? It's like my life because I work in show. Yeah, no, I don't like a lot of fast food, but I do love a hot dog. That's why I had it because this reminds me of New York. Anyway, I was working, about five years ago, I was working out of the O2 on a show called Mamma Mia the Party, which I wrote is Bjorn from Abba.

Anyway, there's about 100 people involved at the show. And for reasons I can't fathom, Björ and I were left alone at lunchtime. And we were hungry, and we didn't have anybody. Normally there's people who assist you because, I don't know, there's a lot of people around. And so Bjorn and I decided to walk out into the O2 and go and get lunch for ourselves.

And we walked into Anandos. Now, neither of us had ever been in Anandos, but it doesn't reflect well on either of us, right? It really doesn't. So we sat for ages waiting to be served. Bjorn from Abba and Sandy Toxfig in Anandos. You've got me already. Neither of us had ever been to one before.

I feel really bad because it does not reflect well on either of us. Anyway, we sat there for about 15 minutes and weren't served, at which point, Bjorn said to me, having looked around, I think it's mainly chicken. We left for somewhere with knives and forks. That is! Oh! to have been the starva.

It's not a good story, is it? It's not a good story. Actually, it is a great story. No, I think neither is. It doesn't reflect, right? No, either of us. But it's a great story. It's awful.

Right, go for a hot dog. Oh my God, it's enormous. You did say you wanted everything. I should ask you a question. No, no, no. I'm waiting to see if we get a, you know, in the good old, no soggy bottoms and any of that going back to your. Oh, my God.

It's so good. Is it good? They'll be delighted here at Spiritland. You said that. Oh, my God. They'll be delighted. It's the mustard ketchup combo. So in Denmark, hot dogs are very big in Denmark.

What you mean? I physically big or just... No, no, no. It's just like... They're available on every street corner. Really? Yeah. So it's called...

How come? Pulsovon. So it's a little cart that just sells hot dog. Say that again for me? Pulsovon. Pulsovon. So sausage car. Okay.

And that's all they sell. It's hot dogs. And if you really are an officiade, you say, eat me to heel, which means one with everything. and it's got fried onions and raw onions and cooked onions and ketchup and mustard and everything, one with everything. And I've taught my children that.

I love that. I have a hot dog without it having everything. Did they, is that, does that have everything? No, it hasn't got the... It's got, yeah, it's not enough onion, but it's nice. You want more onion. No, it's very good. I can get you more on.

I can't possibly do a podcast and eat. No, go for it. Have another, but no, go. You need another mouthful. You can't just have one. I'm having one of those days where I'm running around and I just going to have one. more mouth for them and then I'll stop. Okay. Are you actually on, I can't ask you.

Okay. So your midst book tour of Friends of Dorothy, you're about to do in a just over a month, the 12th and 14th, isn't it? You're going to be at the Drury Lane Theatre doing QILs live. For one night only for two nights? No, two nights. I know. You're calling it for one night only. Yeah, yeah.

But we're named for two nights. No, but I like that because that's very santi-tox for it. I can't actually just call you. I can't say, isn't the weirdest thing? I can't say your first name on its own. My friends call me sand. Well, yes, but you're Sandy Toxvig. It goes together.

There are certain people, it's like that's your one name. Sandy Toxvig. Marie Antoinette. I don't think many people said Marie. Oh no. How's Marie? No, it's too familiar. Yeah, it's not okay.

It's weird about, so words, obviously, you're one of our really true great words. wordsmiths. And you told me something just before we came on air, that there's a million words. More than a million. More than a million words in the English language. And would that people use them properly. But words are invented all the time. And Shakespeare brought lots of words into the English language. Weird words like anchovy. Hurry, eyeball. Hurry, I've got an anchovy on my eyeball. You could not have said before Shakespeare. Please put that in the line in your next show. I'll do it just for you.

I love words I like also because I speak Danish so I speak two languages fluently and it makes you sort of think

about words and we have a word in Danish which doesn't fully translate which is one of my favoures which is Enkel

and it just means beautiful through simplicity Oh I love that You know when something is just kind of perfect but it's actually

there's not a lot to it yes so maybe a leaf or a raindrop or something is Enkled And it's true of Danish design.

I think really good Danish design has got a simplicity about it but is profoundly beautiful. So I like that. That's a lovely word. I love words. I love words. I'm not a great word smith, but I always, I just love listening

when somebody, however they use it. I mean, I think they can be such snobbery about words and people say, oh, everybody says like and like and literally, although I have to say on the tube the other day, there's completely true story. I tell this all the time that these two young girls will say,

literally I died last night. I died. I died last night. I literally died. And so I couldn't resist it. And I said to the girl, you didn't literally die because you're here.

You weren't there. I literally died. But actually, they're using language and it's developing and it's changing and it's moving. And it's really interesting listening to how. And I can't work out how. Where does it all come from?

So where would be the first person that said, I literally died, so somebody else then takes it on? Yeah, I don't know when we make mistakes about words, but it's also interesting when people correct you about their mistake and think that it's right. So I was crossing the street, and there was a woman with a small child, maybe eight years old, and she smacked the child on the back of the head,

which you don't see very much anymore, right? Oh, no, no, no. But what was brilliant was what she said. She said, we were in South London. She said, it's not in it, it's ain't it. Oh, fantastic. And I just thought, that's worth hitting your child for. I mean, don't hit your child at all.

Don't hate your child, though. No, it's not in it, it's ain't it? Okay. There's so much here to unpack that I have to walk on. I have to keep them walking. Have you always, when you were younger, did language, did all of this that's now enveloped your life? I think it's over 20 books you've written.

And your memoir. Is it memoir or memoirs? Memoir. I mean, so what you should. Here's my thing. Some people say memoirs. Say what you like. Say what you like.

I dislike. I dislike people who fuss too much about spelling mistakes. I dislike people who fuss too much about grammar, you know, less or few or any of those things. But that's why you're so lovable because you love it. Yeah. But I'm just quite, I've always been fascinated because some people say memoir, some people say memoirs.

One thing is, I don't care. As long as I know what you're saying... The book about you. The book about me? The book what I wrote about my life. The book what you wrote. I mean, it's sold. It's just selling hugely and wonderfully,

which is fantastic. But all the other books that you've written, and all the radio shows and the television shows and everything that we know you for for over the years and the theatre shows, I remember coming to see Cinderella. But all the things that you've done, was that you as a child as well? So my father was a live broadcaster

and he was the most famous man in Denmark. Yes. Because when we were young, television was started at 7 o'clock and you had to turn it on at 5'2 because it took a while for it to warm up. The warm up? Oh, wow. And then my dad would read the time. news and he would read it for an hour and that would be without any inserts, no filmed inserts.

It was just my dad. There was a red telephone. I don't know why because it's black and white. Occasion of the prime minister would ring on the red telephone for an interview. Did he answer? Yes, yeah, yeah. My dad would smoke the pipe during the broadcast. And then at 7, 8 o'clock when he'd finished, there'd be half an hour of Queen's Silver Spoon collection or something. And then the service would close down. My father was two-thirds of all Danish television. So that's impossible. There's one channel. That's literally, literally, he was the most

famous. He was the most famous person in Denmark. And it really mattered to him the words that he chose. He took the responsibility enormously carefully. And so he was the voice of Denmark for the live broadcasts for the Apollo moon landings,

for the various things at the death of Martin Luther in the United States and things. It mattered what he He said, it mattered the words that he chose. He would prepare so carefully. So when he did the live coverage of, for example, Charles and Diana's wedding,

he was determined to find a Danish connection for the audience, and he just couldn't find one, until he discovered that the Australian soprano, Kiri Takanawa, who was singing at the wedding, was wearing Danish earrings. Fabulous! It's that. It's the attention to detail. It's the caring about what you're saying.

It's the being thoughtful. And I remember he came back. from holiday he'd grown a beard on holiday and he presented the news and he got lots of lovely letters from people saying I love the beard and he shaved it off immediately and I said why he said because they're not listening to what I'm saying oh that's interesting

but life has become like that now I mean he was he saw the future and it's become like that everybody has so judgmental far more about what you look like the colour of your hair whether you've got a beard whether you've lost weight put on weight what you're wearing it is crazy

yeah but listen to what somebody is saying That's what matters. Don't use words to poison people and don't use words to be unkind or punch down or be a bully. You know, all the first thing. So my dad, and he was also a writer, my grandfather was a writer,

my great-aunt was a writer, my brothers and sisters, they're both writers. It's in my DNA. Honestly God, if my dad was a butcher, I'd be selling you chops. Do you know what I mean? It's just the family business.

But also, whether or not it's the family business, you love it. I do. They do because when people disagree, you know, before we had online social media, when people disagree, it should be possible to sit down and find a place where you can agree. It should be possible to use sufficient words to mediate a position where we both go, I can live with that. And if we don't do that, what is going to happen to the world? That's very interesting.

I had the exact conversation with somebody the other day who said their friend, they were very shocked that their friend was one side in America. You can probably guess the side. And she said, I just don't want to speak to my friend anymore that she is supporting him. And I said, do you not think you should talk to her about why she's chosen that?

She said, no, I just don't want to hear it. I said, well, I think you need to both talk. She said, oh, we've known each other 30 years. I don't want to have anything to do with her. surely we need to sit down. That's polarity isn't good for us? No. It's not good.

And even if somebody has a view which I find reprehensible, I genuinely want to sit down and say, how did you get here? How did you get to a place where you are being so judgmental? But that's probably an old-fashioned view, and now there's a lot of shouting. It seems to me, I don't really do social media. It seems to me that all the village idiots are on the same green

or shouting at the same time instead of listening. Nobody listen. Would you like another mouthful of your hot dog? No, but I feel really bad. No, don't feel bad. Hello. It's me. You've known me 100 years.

My friend, it's so lovely. Although you were just that woman. Just that woman. I love that. It's so good. I'm so pleased you're enjoying it. Sue, who also came with you today. She's also got a hot dog and I'm going to look through to the glass.

Is she enjoying them? Are you enjoying your hot dog? She's enjoying it as well. Good. Life with me on the road. Yay. So midst book tour, this book, Friends of Dorothy, I just, I said to you when I chatted you on Radio 2 as well, I love that title.

I love that title so much. For you, is a book tour more than just going and talking about your book? Because I can't imagine you just sit there and say, right, let's talk about the book. Oh, dear God, no. So the book tour is entirely about books in general, why we read, what books are for, what are books that have been published that you think, really? Who published that? You know, I collect books with titles that you think, seriously, that's like the most niche thing that's ever been published in the world. Most niche title that you have.

At the moment, Jewish Grand Chess Masters on Stamps. It's good, in it? Oh, do you know what? Yeah. I wish. I wish I'd try to guess. Because there's no humanly possible way I would have gone anywhere near that. And the book is mainly an analysis of the chess move shown on the stamp.

It's the most boring, but it's so niche that you just think, who, what? Where did you find this board? Did somebody send it to you? So I look for things like this. This is one of my things. So do you Google niche book titles? I go down rabbit holes on the internet all the time. I love a rabbit hole.

And one of the great things is that if you buy one of those niche books, say you buy it on, you know, an online book. They will usually recommend another book to you that you hadn't thought of. Yes. So I've got another one. Does God Speak Through Cats? Now, I've read this so that you don't have to. The answer is no.

No. And there's definitely no. But, you know, it's a great type of. I think we had somebody like that on the Big Breakfast. We had a person come on the Big Breakfast, not about God, but who was a psychic, She says you had a psychic cat. And she brought the psychic cat on.

Unfortunately, I'm very allergic to cats. Oh, I don't like cats at all. I'm allergic. So the whole interview, I was, yes, no. And I'm not exaggerating. I've got to tell you one more, which is an American farmer has written a book called Everything I Know About Women I Learned from My Tractor. I'm slightly scared to ask.

Very good face. Have you read it? I have. And if you like to think of sex, in terms of a tractor going into a tunnel. It's the book for you. Oh, no! You did go where I was worried you would.

You went straight through that tunnel. Oh, you know me, I was saying. Oh, she's naughty. So when you did kids telly, being naughty, was that your way in to doing the next lot of stuff? Because you loved it, though, didn't you? Absolutely loved it. Number 73.

Yeah, live, live. Yeah, 3 quarters live. So I've had one of those accidental careers where I never looked for a way in. I was mostly looking for a way out. So I was in something called The Footlights when I was at University at Cambridge. The first female group. First all female group. And the director saw me in that.

And he asked me to go and work for him. And I worked for him at Nottingham Playhouse for a year as an actor, thinking, oh, I'll have a gap year after uni as well as before. Because I was going to go off and be a human rights lawyer. And then I got the job on number 73. So I've just fallen from one job to another without... Happy falls. Yeah, well, absolutely.

But no plan. No plan, apart from I'm going to be a human rights lawyer. So far... Have you ever done it? No. Forty-four years in. But I would still say in many ways you do that because you're very outspoken and passionate about caring for people.

And it is my intention to try and do things that hopefully make things better. Better, yes. So you are doing it? I'm trying to. I'm working on a big project at the moment to correct Wikipedia in a massive way. Wow. To literally change the world by changing how we look at it. So, yeah, I do in my own way.

You do, yes. And I'm quite pleased that you do it not quietly. No, I mean it. It's very interesting. If you say to people, I think you can see on people's faces when they come towards certain people, probably possibly by their age but the way they look at

I'm going to use the word star if you don't mind it was going to use that as so I hate the word celebrity I don't think either of those things I can't stand the word celebrity I think it's a horrible but some are a well-known person let's use that sometimes I'll be walking down the street with a well-known person

and I'll know exactly what they're thinking that person they'll be thinking mama me of the party or they'll be thinking QI I'm obviously talking number 73, or they're thinking No. 73 or they're thinking Radio 4 or whatever it is, but sometimes you can tell by their face. And it's interesting that now people's vision of you, is it mainly QI and Bakeoff, do you think? They're the two most recent. It just depends on the thing that hit the person.

So Number 73, which is more than 40 years ago, it's still a thing. Still, the thing. People talk to me about motormouth, which was the follow-on from, number 73, they'll walk down the street, say, oh, motor-mouth, and I find it enchanting that they still think that. No, it's weird. So I played a character called Ethel, so it was partly a sitcom and partly a sort of live show. Can I swear on this as a moment?

It's just for the purposes of illustration. Yes, absolutely. Oh, fine. So, middle of the night, on a very dark bit of common, and very sadly, I saw in front of me there had been a car accident, and somebody was lying in the middle of the road. And so I got out of my car and I ran towards them to see if they were okay. And this person had broken both of their legs.

It was beautiful. Oh. But they turned to look to me. It went, fuck me. It's earthful. You made it that a bit better. So it was just weird. But that's that.

So it's, yeah, so it depends what has taken people's imagination, I think. But do you think now, I mean, QI, obviously, because you're going to be doing one night only for two nights, which I think is perfect. QI Live and I know you love live theatre Am I right in thinking you're one of the original people who started the comedy The Comedy Store players, yeah So it was the improv group I was with them for years and years and years But you wanted the OG

We used to do, yeah, we used to do Well, in fact, the Comedy Store I performed the very first night of the comedy store Oh isn't that incredible With a brilliant man called Simon McBurney Who is now one of the world's greatest theatre directors And we did a double act together and his then girlfriend Emma Thompson did the sound effects in the wings.

Whatever happened to her? I don't know. I don't know. She had so much potential. Yeah. Never heard of her since. That's extraordinary. But it's all the things that you've done, it's just interesting.

So when I said to people that you were coming on, they were, oh, I've seen her life. You love live theatre as much as people want to see you live, because you're all about people. Yeah, but also, do you know what happens? This is the wonderful thing about being in an audience. Very swiftly, as you sit in an audience, your heart rate will align up with everybody else that you're sitting with. So we synchronise together when we are an audience. And you are 30 times more likely to laugh if you're sitting in an audience than if you are on your own. Everything about you feels better by being in an audience.

And I think that's so important. I think it's particularly since the lockdown. I think we need to look each other in the face. I think it's really important. I didn't want to do this on the phone with you. I wanted to sit in a room with you and talk because we're having a different kind of conversation. I don't particularly like the phone.

I don't like Zoom. I don't like any of these. No, neither do. Are they cold? But this, this is nice. And the best, for me, the best bit of the show is, it was about half an hour where the audience can ask me, whatever they like, I don't care what it is.

And some of the conversations are just wonderful. It's the stuff that people bring up. And I always say to them in the interval, please talk to each other. Please don't just look on your phone. Just put your phone away. What's going to happen in 20 minutes? Unless you are a brilliant surgeon who can save somebody's life,

I think you could probably put your phone away for 20 minutes. I love that. Talking is so important. So that's why QI, doing the live QI, is also, suddenly it just brings people into it because everybody screams at the screen without a doubt. You know I love QI. It's not just because you're here.

I love QI. And I wish I could remember everything. Every week, every week. I wish I could. But it's just the things that you find out. And it just makes me feel good. And I want that sort of tell you. I want television that makes me feel good.

Yeah, and because the world is fascinating. The world is so interesting. Isn't it? There's so much more to it than you think. So this is a really bizarre thing, but it made me think about the diversity of human beings. So my wife and I were on holiday in Copenhagen. You're lovely, can we just say?

I love your wife. She's the best person. I've ever. And you really, you're the happiest person. Oh my God, I'm crazy about it. 18 years. Just fantastic. I can't wait. So I'm not seeing her now till tomorrow, but I can't wait. Yeah, we're already planning what to have for dinner. That's so lovely. It's so pathetic. But anyway. No, it's not. It's not pathetic. We were in Copenhagen and there was one of those pop-up shops. You know when they don't know what to do with the shop and they've given it to somebody for a short while. Anyway, you could go in this shop and have a giant photograph taken of the iris of your eye.

And I thought, why on earth would you want to do that? But anyway, we stood there looking at these blown-up pictures of people's irises. And I had never really focused on the extraordinary structure of the eye, which you could see. It was an amazing camera. And Shakespeare gave us the word eyeball. Well, there you go, you see. So, thank God you're paying attention. So we thought, all right, let's do it.

Because you're on holiday and you're thinking, oh, what's going? So a picture of my eye and a picture of my wife's eye. And then they said, well, we can print these up next to each other. So my eye is like an Arctic ice pool up close. It's very blue and white. It really honestly looks like Elsa from Frozen. You know, there's some kind of thing. My wife's eye is like caramel.

It's like the most beautiful pool of chocolate and caramel. It's just this incredible thing. And we have this photograph now of our two eyes next to each other. Oh, how incredible. But what's amazing is here we are, two women with a lot in common. We're both white. We're both well-educated. We're both privileged.

Lots of things that we have in common. we could not be more different at our core. And that's what I love about life, about the diversity of life, about the uniqueness of us. We all know about fingerprints all being unique. The eye is another thing, but that's the window of the soul. But that's how different we all are. And so the more I learn things like that,

and the more we dive into what nature represents and all the stuff that QI dives into, I get more and more excited about life. And I hope less and less judgmental. because can we just embrace how diverse the world is? And actually QI does exactly that. It's exactly that. So the idea of bringing it live to the theatre,

I know you're doing one night only for two nights here in London. Are you going to tour it? I'd like to. I'd like to. This is honestly an experiment. And so I know that, so it's not the panel show. That's the thing to be really clear about. What we thought we'd do was we would drill down into one subject really deeply, and I'd love theatre.

So most people would try this out in a pub theatre and just see if it works. But we thought we'd take Drury Lane. Why not? Why not, right? Yeah. Anyway, here's the thing, and you'll love this. So we often talk about blue whales.

It's a thing we tease Alan Davis about the size of a blue whale. What's the size of a blue whale? The stage is the widest stage in the West End, and it's 100 foot wide, and you could just fit a blue whale on because it's about 98 feet. Oh. I feel like we found the right space. Perfect. Yeah.

So what we're doing is we're doing theatre as a whole, why we go to the theatre, how theatre started. I love theatre. Facts about theatre. Why are the curtains red? Why are the seats red? You know, I started as a Follespot operative when I was 18, it was my first job.

Why do we have called Limelight? All of the stuff, the interesting facts about theatre. Plus the audience gets to muck about and there's going to be a bit of dancing. And they're joining in, aren't they? They're very much joining in. Yeah, absolutely. So it's a two-way thing. Yeah, it's a show, it's a show.

But it's just to say, isn't knowledge great and isn't theatre fantastic? And let's all get together and celebrate. So you have to actually do it on tour. You do? I would really like that. I think getting out and about around the country is quite important. It's critical. It's critical that you don't just sit in your telly studio.

Yeah, and actually, that's what I like about television these days and radio, that we're all coming from everywhere. I get on my train, as you know. Manchester, I work in Birmingham, and my work. It's just great that it's like that. And the idea of taking that on tour, I think I might. If you need a coach driver? Yes, please.

Okay. I don't do my cast. We don't do show together soon, darling. Why do we not do something together? Let's do something together. What should we do? Seriously. I don't know. We've never seen for such a long time.

We can do something together. Yeah, yeah. I might just we now because I'm that excited. Thank God for in consciousness. Benz. Thank God. Can we just talk about Bake-Off? Because my girls wanted to ask you about Bake-off. Okay.

They're not here, so I'm going to ask. Yeah. They were very funny. They said it was, because they also love QI. They've been brought up on QI, and they love it. Properly brought up. Yeah, and they just, they, they, I have to admit they don't sit down at the same time that it's on.

Catch-up, why not? And I think the joy of catch-up, there we go. I'm all for it. And they watch it on Iplay. The BBC would very happy that we said that. But they watch it. And then we have conversations about it. We have all of that.

And they said that what you brought to Bake Off was exactly the same thing. They had more conversations about Bakeoff when you were doing it than they'd had before or since. And it's not, I'm not being a derogatory and, you know, Mel and Sue, we both know them terribly well and love them dearly. And the people who now do it and they're lovely. but that we were having conversations about it that we hadn't had before. So we weren't doing, oh, look at that one with Paul like it was different. Well, that's interesting. We had conversations.

But I can't come at something just in a sort of standard way. That's not my style of doing things. Thank goodness. That's why I didn't last, darling. I did three years that I had to be. No, it was a wonderful three years and we loved your three years. I just thought I wanted it because they said you made them look at it different. Well, I like that and if I did one thing in my life,

it's to try and make people more curious about anything. Honestly, almost anything. Just be curious. Are you kids curious? Yeah, they're fantastic. I have fabulous children. Oh, my goodness. So yesterday, we all had lunch together.

It was my ex's birthday, and we still get on, and we still celebrate. I love that. And we were about 20 of us, and there was the grandchildren running around, and my kids, and my son just got married, and I was asking his new wife, they just got back from honeymoon, whether she was fed up with him yet you know it was just

Please tell him she said not yet Not yet not so far Good yeah No so far so good They're just wonderful glorious human beings And I love them

My son has Despite my best efforts Followed in my footsteps And it's just about to have His I think his fifth play on Radio 4 He's a playwright And an actor That's fantastic

And my middle daughter Is an oncologist And my oldest one Is a wonderful brilliant photographer. And they're glorious. They're absolutely glorious human beings. And are they curious about the world?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We used to play a thing, and I didn't care, even before they were verbal, I used to say, right, everybody around the table before we get pudding

has to tell me something I didn't already know. That was used to be the game, right? Oh, wow. That's brilliant. So simple. I love simple. There's anything at all.

So the four-year-old will go, Samantha's got to bruise on her bottom, as her friend, and I'd go, I did not know that. And that counts. That completely counts. Or it could be something that they've learned at school. Or the baby would go, rah, rah, rah, bra.

And we'd all try and guess what the baby is telling us that we didn't already now. So you don't just speak Danish and English. You also speak baby. I do bra, bra, bra, bra, bra. So with the grandchildren, you'll be completely fine. But I love having a conversation with them. I took the four-year-old to the theatre for the first time to see Frozen. And she sat still as a mouse all the way through until nearly the end.

And she turned to me and said, is Elsa real? I know and it's sort of yes and no yes it's a real person but you'd never seen theatre before so was that a real person on the stage is the question

theatre is I mean I think theatre is vital and I'm very very lucky that my parents took me to the theatre before they took me to the cinema because they both loved love loved it and so I grew up on it and it's I find theatre

I still walk into a theatre and I have that same fizz. Yeah. And it's immediacy. And also that wonderful feeling when you leave the theatre, whatever it is. And I love musicals. I passionately love musicals.

But I leave... Didn't we go to a musical last time we saw? Yes, we did. That's all, yeah. We were both eating in Leon, talking of fast food restaurants. I know how to do Leon. They have forks.

That's easy there. It's much easier than the other place you mentioned. But going off, going off and we were seeing Hello Dolly. That was incredible. But coming out of the theatre and then that talking about it. It's a communal experience and we need those. Like you said.

Because more and more you said about your kids watching on catch up, right? Television has become less of a communal experience. Yes, sadly. Very sadly. But now, so those big set pieces of television are rare. Strictly. People still tune in. Yeah.

So when it has to be live is really. But we need it. We need the thing. I agree. You know, what the Americans call a water cooler moment. What did you talk about? at the water cooler in the morning at the office that you've all seen and you were all paying attention to.

I love that. That helps to join us together. It really does. But you do that and you do it so wonderfully. Please, we have another mouthful of your hot dog. Oh my God. I'm getting very concerned that you're not... I'm so hungry. I'm so sorry. No, what? Why are you apologised? Please stop apologising. That's about the third time you've said sorry. You're not allowed to say sorry. That's the deal.

We've known each other 100 years. You're not allowed to say sorry ever again unless you do something really awful. And then you'll have to apologise. I won't say it, I'm sorry. Where did that come from? You'll probably know the answer. So where did I'm sorry? Where's the word come from?

Oh, that's interesting. I don't know the origins of sorry. It doesn't even have any kind of clear Latin or Greek shape to it. We should look it up. You have, and you have all the elves at the end of your phone. They've introduced you to things that you didn't know, haven't they? There's lots I don't know. I think the answer I don't know is a really important answer.

People don't like to say it. They're too scared because it makes them look silly. No, no. What it does is says, I don't know, but I'd like to. It's an open invitation for knowledge. Somebody did it the other day to me. They said something and I said, I'm really sorry. I don't know what that word means.

And they said, I'm surprised that you'd admit that. No, but they meant it nicely. And I said, no, I actually made it nicely. And I said, no, I actually don't know what the word is. I don't know what it meant. I'm trying to think, because Latin is mere culper. My fault. You know, I'm culpable.

he would say for sorry but that's not sorry and in Denmark we say apologies we don't apologise a lot we just on the whole presume we're but everybody apologises too much yeah but the Danes don't really

they're rather more straightforward are they? Yeah they're very straightforward they're sorry? No not really Is there excuse me because I do like excuse me It's all the same Unskule without fault is what we say So I'll say

Instead of excuse me I just say without fault It's not my fault But if you're walking past somebody Would you say Because my parents said Please thank you and excuse me In every language wherever you go Just learn that

Yeah you would say So if you're walking past somebody But you would also say If you said to me Do you like my top And I'd say no I don't think it suits you That would be quite a Danish response Because you resumed that you wanted the truth

I'm not saying that about your top by the way No but also Somebody I had this conversation with somebody Long and hard into the night about saying because she'd had a haircut and I said actually

it does suit you I do like it longer it does suit you and she was well I wanted you to say that you loved it and then we had this longer but it was a really good conversation

but you don't have to it's fine I'm looking at so I have to look it up now now sorry yes the etymology of sorry sorry I no don't know you said sorry

for looking up sorry you're not actually allowed to say sorry for looking up sorry sorrow comes from sorrow West Germanic pained or distressed of West Germanic origin from the noun's sore

it's a shortening of sorrow oh that makes complete sense doesn't it? I'm sorrow. Yeah, I have sorrow for what time. I have sorrow and we just shortened it. Yeah, I'm sorry. Because we are always in a hurry.

Aren't we just? Sandy, good luck with the book tour. Good luck for one night only, which will be two nights and we'll then hopefully go on tour because I'm now going to, I don't know who, but I'm going to, hello, we need on tour. I think Hull would love it and Glasgow would love it and

Bourne will. I'm endlessly available. Okay, that's... You're so not. I know. You're the busiest lady on the planet. You're going to be writing more... Doing more theatre, though, and doing all of that time.

I've just written a new play, which we're hoping is going to go on next year. I'm in the middle of writing a new musical. You know... You're writing a new musical? I am. Oh, you see, I told you, I loved you, Sandit Talk. Sandy Talks, thank you very much. You didn't do my gift that I brought...

We're doing that in the next thing. Oh, we do then that. Yeah, okay.